It was a good-humoured interjection and a reflection of some of the positive efforts in the Parliament to ensure the legislation would be passed on the last sitting day of the year, while still allowing those who wanted to move amendments to do so.

Half an hour later, his leader Bill Shorten appeared to be on the same path when he offered to agree to "defer" question time "so we can pass marriage equality as a matter of urgency". Except there was little that was genuinely well intentioned about the move.

"Will the Prime Minister join with Labor to get this done as soon as possible?" Shorten quivered in his most statesmanlike voice.

Same-sex marriage: Australia's rainbow road

Malcolm Turnbull – who, gee, must have crossed paths with more than one black cat in his life, given the way his luck has run as Prime Minister – couldn't believe his luck on this occasion.

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"This must be the first time the leader of an opposition has asked that question time be abandoned," he observed. "It must be the first time. I wonder why?"

Question time is historically the time when the government is held to account; which is why it seemed extraordinary that an opposition leader would voluntarily offer it up, particularly on the last day of the parliamentary year.

Pasting Shorten

But it long ago became a bastardised process that usually just gives the government an opportunity to kick the Opposition around a bit.

And – who would have believed it even one or two weeks ago – the parliamentary year was finishing with Turnbull in the ascendancy and Shorten in a world of pain.

The distant rumbling of tumbrils

And as the year draws to a close, the Opposition Leader is under more scrutiny, and facing more resentment from his colleagues, than has been the case for much of the time since at least the last election.

Let's be clear here: the government, and the Prime Minister, have had an appalling year on so many fronts, whether in terms of own goals or in the luck of politics.

Is Malcolm Turnbull finally losing the black cat after dismal year in politics?
Alex Ellinghausen

But questions over parliamentarians' citizenship which could have hit virtually any prime minister have landed in Malcolm Turnbull's lap and left disgusted voters unable to comprehend how these events could have come about, and how the Parliament could be so utterly dysfunctional and incompetent. And they hold the Prime Minister responsible.

As the year ends, however, here are some poll numbers to consider, amid all the dark suggestions that we can already hear the distant rumble of the tumbrils coming for Malcolm Turnbull in March or April after 30 bad Newspolls.

Newpolls bad news for Labor

In 2018, the question may not just be about what Malcolm Turnbull is doing wrong, but why the electorate won't cop Bill Shorten.
Alex Ellinghausen

This week's Newspoll put the Coalition's primary vote at a rather sad 36 per cent – down from (a not much better historically) 42 per cent at last year's federal election.

And it has been this fall from electoral grace that has chewed up so much oxygen in recent months.

But Newspoll also recorded Labor's primary vote this week at 37 per cent. It was 35 per cent on election day last year.

That's right. Despite the government waking up every morning and collectively hitting itself over the head with a piece of four by two, despite the Prime Minister seeming unable to put a foot right, Labor has picked up just two percentage points on its primary vote. Within the margin of error.

No one could have put the government's year in less glowing terms than Shorten himself, who noted to Turnbull this week:

"This year the Prime Minister has lost three ministers, lost multiple votes in Parliament, cancelled Parliament, announced a tax hike for seven million Australians, cut penalty rates for 700,000 workers, ruled out a banking commission and then announced it and made two million premises wait longer for the NBN.

"Given the Prime Minister has spent 2017 hostage to his backbench and to events, why should Australians believe 2018 will be any better?"

Will 2018 be any better?

David Rowe

The answer to Shorten's question is that there would seem few reasons why Australians should believe 2018 will be any better in terms of politics.

But, having said that, last weekend's New England byelection, foregone conclusion that it was, showed what a filip such things can be to a struggling prime minister.

If the Coalition managed, against many expectations, to hold on to Bennelong on December 16, the shift in political dynamics would be truly extraordinary.

Meantime, the troublemakers in Turnbull's own ranks have not had a good couple of weeks either, particularly with backbencher George Christensen having been revealed to be in cahoots to destabilise his own government and leader with some of the flogs from the News Ltd/Sky stable who like to think they run things.

In 2018, the question may not just be about what Malcolm Turnbull is doing wrong, but why the electorate won't cop Bill Shorten, and where all those lost Coalition votes are going to end up. And it must be about whether political luck is about to shift.